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Jaime Staples plays poker full-time. He often participates in eight online tournaments simultaneously, and streams four of those games using the real-time broadcasting platform Twitch. Basically, poker has become his life.

He broadcasts that life on Twitch eight hours a day, five days a week – usually to about 1,700 people. His viewer count reached as high as 7,200 at one point. Wouldn’t it be nerve-wracking to play in front of that many people?

“The first time, it was terrifying,” admits Staples, talking to Postmedia over the phone from Lethbridge, Alta. “But you get used to it. Of course, if I had to speak to 300 people in person, that might be kind of scary, but you don’t really grasp how many people that is in front of a computer.”

Staples, 24, has become one of the biggest personalities in streaming poker, along with popular U.S. player Jason Somerville. During his streams, Staples adopts an everyman persona, occasionally acting like a radio host when he interacts with viewers. You get both poker and entertainment, at the same time.

“Some people come just for the poker content – they just want to get better at poker and make more money,” says Staples. “And then some people treat it exactly as you said, as entertainment, a sort-of morning show.”

Staples first started playing poker five years ago, after he gave up on his dream of becoming a professional golfer. In a sense, his fascination with the game can be traced back to sibling rivalry, a battle with his younger brother Matt to see how many play-money chips they could each earn.

“He kept bragging,” says Staples with a laugh. “So, I was like, ‘Okay, this isn’t going to work.’ And I started playing, and eventually I found my way to real money sites, and tried it out a bit, and really just fell in love with the game. When I actually had to beat him and think about why I was doing what I was doing, the game took on a whole new form, where there was a lot of depth and room for growth.”

Now, he’s making so much from poker that he’s able to hire his brother as a personal assistant. About seven months ago, he decided to take a break from his studies at the University of Lethbridge to play poker full-time, and stream his games live.

Twitch, which has helped Staples build his brand, first gained popularity as a platform to stream video game content, but it’s been used in different ways recently, such as when dance music star Steve Aoki broadcasted a set from Ibiza last summer. Staples says that Twitch can help introduce poker to a new audience.

“What poker needs is new storytelling,” he says. “I think Twitch is definitely going to help, in terms of showing what poker is, and showing it in a different way than you see on TV, which is like the girls in bikinis and money on the table. This is showing a different side, a realistic side of poker.”

After developing a sizeable audience and scoring some big wins – such as his victory in the Big $109 tournament this spring, where he won more than $19,000 – he caught the attention of PokerStars, who recently signed him to a sponsorship deal as a ‘Friend of PokerStars’.

Along with the income Staples makes from tournaments and his endorsements – he also has a deal with poker software company Jivaro – the rest of his revenue comes from subscriptions to his channel, ads played during his stream and direct donations from his followers.

At one point, he also offered poker coaching for $100-an-hour, but he’s taking a break from that. Things are pretty busy these days – along with a few trips to Las Vegas over the next little while and a visit to TwitchCon in September, Staples and his brother will be leaving their parents’ house and moving to Calgary in July.

And while people might criticize Staples for not sticking with his undergraduate studies, you’ve got to admire his drive.

“School was definitely the safe route,” he says. “But one day I was just like, I don’t think there’s enough time for that. I just want to pursue what I’m doing, and I’m going to do it in a smart way, in a really calculated and passionate way. So I decided to go with my passions, because that’s what the most successful people in life do. I just took a leap of faith.”